Life with the Depews: 2013

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Happy Halloween!

Criminals beware - Ironman, and Iron Spiderman may be on the prowl in a neighborhood near you! :)

And More Halloween Treats for School

Because I am a glutton for punishment... And had more gloves than I needed. And couldn't find Scooby Doo coloring books. And didn't want to take back the 40 Scooby Doo cups I found first. And I finally found the cute Scooby Doo Activity books. And I love Scooby Doo. And we already had all the stuff... and I wanted to get.rid.of.it. And everyone needs to eat a popcorn ball once in their life. And, and, and... I am just me. :)

I made treats for the boys' afterschool program's Halloween party, too.

Lucky, lucky, boys. :)

P.S. Those popcorn balls are messy, but *delicious*. Found them at Walmart. They started out as soccer treats. We won't even go into what happened there... )

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Halloween Treats for School

And speaking of being proud of your creation... I was pretty estatic with how my Halloween school treats turned out this past week as well. :)

Decorating Pumpkins

Connor's class decorated pumpkins at school earlier this week. He was quite proud of his creation. :)

Friday, August 23, 2013

Meet the Teacher Gifts

Let me just say upfront that I am well aware that I might have gone a teensy bit overboard in my enthusiasm for "Meet the Teacher" gifts.

I procrastinated even thinking about them for weeks, then on Tuesday night around midnight as I was fuming about something or other work related well aware that there was no way I was going to be able to sleep I sat down and started brainstorming ideas. In the span of about 30 minutes I had come up with 4 spectacular ideas, and had drafts already well underway in Photoshop. And I cannot tell you how excited I am about how they turned out!

The first put to good use a couple of extra succulents and pots I picked up at Ikea last weekend. On a side note - I can't say enough good things about these plants. They take my abuse and are really just about the only house plants I haven't managed to kill over the years even as I regularly in turns forget to water them, then overwater them for weeks at a time. Despite all that not only have they survived, they have outright THRIVED.

So I threw together a quick printable, glued it around a skewer, tied on a bow, et VOILA! Done!

And you have to forgive me for my tangent here, but I am *IN LOVE* with the new glue sticks. The boys needed 4 and of course they come in a 3 pack each so I ended up with 2 extras for my craftin' stash. I pulled one out to glue on the flags and just about died when I opened it and discovered it was PURPLE! It actually goes on purple SO YOU CAN SEE WHERE YOU HAVE GLUED!! Then dries clear. OMG. Gluing will never be the same again. The boys can just keep their grubby little mitts off. I am so not sharing. :)

Though I will share a little tip I learned about keeping those ribbons in place on pots or anything else angled and slippery - put a tiny little piece of double sided tape up under the ribbon in the back and you don't have to worry about it slipping down or off.

And, yes, in theory, I should have been done with teacher gifts. But I just couldn't help myself. These little guys had already taken on a life of their own. And I knew I had to finish them.

I found the alligator clips at Dollar Tree the other day. Thought they were super cute so I picked up a set. Luckily when I realized that they would make a cute teacher gift and headed back to the store they still had plenty. So I picked up an extra set, or 3. :) I even turned a couple into magnets for our fridge using some leftover neomydium magnets.

And they really couldn't have been easier to make. Clips + snack bag, cardstock, a topper, and done. Designed and printed my topper. Cut it out, and then used the left over scraps to cut a little piece of cardstock to clip the clips onto(6" x ~1"). Took a scalloped punch and made a "bite" into the cardstock. Then clipped the 3 clips on and slid them into a snack bag. Zipped it up, then stapled my topper on. And done. :)

I showed both of the presents to the boys to let them pick which ones they wanted to take, and of course, they want to take both. As they are already done, why not? I am sure the teacher will love them both. And if I let the boys carry the clips I don't have to worry about them dropping and breaking the pots. :)

Why my mother is awesome

Reason # 8761.
---------------------------
11:39 PM Tuesday
---------------------------
From: Me
To: Mom
Subject: Bad puns

Need teacher gift.
Have plant.
“Looking forward to growing with you this year!”
“Can’t wait to grow with you!”
HELP!!
----------------------------
11:49 PM
----------------------------
From: Mom
To: Me
Subject: RE: Bad puns

Neither one of those is bad - it's kindergarten....or kinder-garden keeping with your bad pun theme
----------------------------
11:52 PM
----------------------------
Ring... Ring...
Mom: Hello
Me: That's brilliant! I am so totally using that. Kinder-garden. Why didn't I think of that?
----------------------------
For the record I think it was also my 4th call of the day. :)

Call 1:
Mom: Hello
Me: "Shhh! {stage whisper} It's me again Margret!
Mom: {stage whisper} Are you sneaking out?
Me: All I can say is the nurse better be at school so I can drop off these shot records. Because if my kids can't go to school on the first day I am homeschooling.

Call 2:
Mom: Hello
Me: The nurse was gone and the school was locked. I gave the records to a random stranger who happened to walk by. I am taking my bike rack back to the shop. They installed it upside down.
Mom: The new one?

Call 3:
Mom: Hello
Me: Turns out it wasn't upside down, they just installed the parts in the wrong places.
Me: On the bright side they could fix it today.
Me: On the down side - they broke another piece.

Life around here is never, ever, dull. :)

Sunday, July 28, 2013

My new gadget

It's no secret I love gadgets. :) Out entire house is full of them in fact - from the kitchen's array of cherry pitters, potatoe ricers, and microwave bacon plates to the ridiculous number of electronics fighting for outlets and recharging space - the dueling Droid phones, the obscene number of HP touchpads, and now slates. I think the only must have gadget of the last decade we haven't yet made the jump to is the kindle. Call me old fashioned, but I still like paper books.

Some gadgets of course have worked out better than others... like the #epicfail microwave egg boiler in which I have only managed to literally explode eggs.

So yesterday, I skeptically, but giddlily none the less, made my way to the Container store to pick up another new gadget. The Flipfold Jr. I figured it would be a complete waste of time, but if there was any chance it could bring order to the never ending piles of kids clothes cluttering my laundry room it'd be worth it. And after folding 4 laundry baskets full of clothes, I have to say I think this one is going to be a keeper.

It really was quick and easy to use. So much so that my kids fought over, and folded at least half the shirts. You heard that right. The kids - my two 5 year old boys - folded half the shirts. All by themselves. And I wasn't going behind them and refolding everything they "helped" with.

From PJ sets, to shirts, to shorts it folded them all into neat little stacks that fit perfectly and easily into the cubbies we use to keep all their clothes in. Though I am not sure I am going to be folding shorts with it in the near future (at least not until they get a little bigger) I will definately be pulling it out and folding, or turning it over to the kids to fold!, their shirts and PJs. Essentially any of the shirts size 6, or youth XS and up it folded brilliantly. It handled the majority of the size 5's as well, though some of the size 5T - tight PJ's in particluar - were too small in width, or too short in length to be folded properly. Though as the boys have outgrown most of those sizes anyway it shoudln't be a problem for long. I am shocked to say I am actually kind of looking forward to that next load of laundry for once and hope that I actually get to fold some of it - it was actually kind of fun! :)

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Kicking Off Summer

Okay, so technically it's not "officially" summer yet - not until June 21st, but given it's been 111 degrees (while we were in Odessa), school's out, and the pool's open - I'd call it summer regardless of what the date on the calendar says.

So we kicked if off the way we intend to spend most of it - at the pool. Really it's the only thing you can (or want to?) do when the temperature tops the century mark with humidity to match.

We checked out the slides.

And practiced our swimming and diving skills.

Though their form can he, ahem.. comical?, they both remember enough not to drown for the most part. Ryan I don't really have to worry about - even in the deep end. Connor I still have to keep an eye on. He doesn't always remember to come up and breathe... he forgets sometimes that he just can't breathe under water...